FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT FINANCIAL LITERACY - PAGE 4

Success in life and money usually stems from making good decisions. But you're unlikely to make good decisions without knowledge. And survey after survey shows Americans, young and old, just don't have enough knowledge about basic money issues to make those good decisions. Thus, the push for financial literacy. It's an effort to teach Americans more about earning, spending, saving, investing, insuring and dealing with credit and debt. Today, there are not only organizations and websites devoted to financial literacy but also online games, money tools and calculators, even a Marvel comic book.

A new survey of mid-sized nonprofits with revenues ranging between $1 million and $5 million found that they lag in financial knowledge and cash reserves. While 76 percent of the respondents said that they were financially literate, only a third were correct when quizzed on their financial knowledge, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "This disconnect has potentially significant implications for nonprofits and the donors who place their trust in them," said Una Osili, director of research at the Center on Philanthropy.

With presidential candidates already starting to woo them, Hispanic leaders said Thursday that improved education and job training would help continue their community's growing political influence. Juan Andrade, president of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, said Hispanic voters are no different than other citizens in that their voting rates rise along with their incomes and education levels. The association released an analysis of the 2000 presidential election that found an increase of 1 million Latino voters from the 1996 race.

Americans get higher marks in pop culture trivia than at financial literacy, according to the National Association of Securities Dealers. As a prelude to creating an investor education program, the NASD commissioned surveys and conducted focus groups. Among its findings: 78 percent of Americans could name a character on a television sitcom, but only 12 percent knew the difference between "load" and "no-load" mutual funds. Similarly, 63 percent knew the difference between a halfback and a quarterback on a football team, but only 14 percent could distinguish between growth stocks and income stocks.

David H. Voss said starting banks in Hispanic neighborhoods was more than good business--it was the right thing to do. The chairman of First Bank of the Americas thought financial security could help immigrants reach the American dream. Mr. Voss, 62, died Wednesday, April 16, of cancer at his Hinsdale home. Mr. Voss and his wife, Pamela, founded First Bank in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood in 1998. The bank now operates other branches in Little Village, Chicago Lawn and Cicero.

As a member of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, Sharon Lechter has witnessed firsthand how even the brightest college students can fail miserably when it comes to managing their money. Although Lechter, a CPA and founder of Pay Your Family First (an organization that promotes financial literacy), applauds the new credit-card legislation that prohibits companies from targeting students with on-campus freebies like pizza parties and T-shirts, she warns parents to remain wary about the lure of plastic.

In the quest for financial literacy, computer power can be a powerful ally. For the past four weeks, I've been writing about studies that show many Americans lack the most rudimentary financial knowledge and skills. Today, I'll talk about resources that can help in the search for financial knowledge. Repeatedly, you ask me to recommend books on personal finance. But books, despite the scores that are published on the subject each year, rarely do the job right. For one thing, no book of reasonable length can cover adequately the multitude of topics that make up the broad subject of financial literacy.

More kids are getting into financial trouble--and their parents are largely to blame, according to a survey aimed at determining how parents teach their kids about money. Parents try to teach their kids to do the right things with their finances, such as save and give to charity, but adults often set a bad example by overspending and living in debt, said Dallas Salisbury, chairman and chief executive of the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, Salisbury said, kids learn more from example than talk.

Illinois teens may soon learn about financial concepts like mortgages, credit cards and tax returns through an interactive computer program designed to feel like a video game. A foundation and a technology company are partnering to cover the costs of providing the financial literacy program to public high schools and recently launched the initiative at Metea Valley High School in Aurora. "What you're doing today is you're getting a huge jump on everybody else, and it's important that you really focus on this because if you make the right decision on this stuff now, it's going to put you in an incredible place down the road," Tom Davidson, CEO of education technology company EverFi, told students.